Summer ministry brings two Jesuits to Michigan island each year

Published: 2005-01-06

MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. (CNS) -- From their first arrival on Mackinac Island in 1670, the Jesuits have been an almost constant presence on the tiny isle in Lake Huron, just below the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. And today, two Jesuits continue that ministry. Brother Jim Boynton and Father Karl Kiser, both natives of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, spend part of each summer ministering to Catholics, many of them Mexican workers, on the small island. The two became friends in the novitiate and meet each summer. Brother Boynton, assistant for vocation ministry for the Detroit province of the Society of Jesus, has visited the island since his childhood. When he was 16 he got a job giving tours on Mackinac Island's Fort Mackinac. His father, a retired postmaster, now runs the museum below Ste. Anne de Michilimackinac Parish and his mother is the parish wedding coordinator. Father Kiser, president of the University of Detroit Jesuit High School, spent the summer of 1997, after his ordination, working on the island and he has not missed a summer there since. Both men speak Spanish, and Father Kiser has often celebrated Mass for the large contingent of Mexican workers who live on the island during the tourist season, from April to November.

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .